An inertial measurement system for aircraft, the system comprising at least one processor unit connected to at least two inertial units, namely at least one inertial unit of a first type having at least three angular sensors and three linear sensors aligned on three substantially distinct sensing axes, and an inertial unit of a second type comprising at least four angular sensors and four linear sensors aligned on four substantially distinct sensing axes. The system is arranged to calculate one piece of inertial data from the six sensors of the inertial unit of the first type and four pieces of inertial data from four distinct combinations of three angular sensors and three linear sensors selected from the sensors of the inertial unit of the second type, and the processor unit is arranged to compare the four pieces of inertial data from the measurements of the inertial unit of the second type with one another so as to determine whether the inertial unit of the second type has failed.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. An inertial measurement system for aircraft, the system comprising at least one processor unit connected to at least two inertial units, namely at least one inertial unit of a first type having at least three angular sensors and three linear sensors aligned on three substantially distinct sensing axes, and an inertial unit of a second type comprising at least four angular sensors and four linear sensors aligned on four substantially distinct sensing axes, the system being arranged to calculate one piece of inertial data from the six sensors of the inertial unit of the first type and four pieces of inertial data from four distinct combinations of three angular sensors and three linear sensors selected from the sensors of the inertial unit of the second type, and the processor unit being arranged to compare the four pieces of inertial data from the measurements of the inertial unit of the second type with one another so as to determine whether the inertial unit of the second type has failed and the processor unit is arranged to calculate a difference between the pieces of inertial data derived from the measurements of the inertial unit of the first type and any one of the pieces of inertial data derived from the inertial unit of the second type and to issue an alert when the difference is greater than a predetermined value.
2. The system according to claim 1 , the four pieces of inertial data from the measurements of the inertial unit of the second type are calculated by means of the same algorithm.
3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the inertial unit of the second type includes a first control circuit for controlling a first set of sensors comprising three angular sensors and three linear sensors, and a second control circuit for controlling a second set of sensors comprising the fourth angular sensor and the fourth linear sensor.
4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the sensing axes of the sensors of the inertial unit of the second type comprise three axes coinciding with three canonical axes together with an axis arranged on a trisector of these three axes.
5. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the sensing axes of the sensors of the inertial unit of the second type are aligned on diagonals of a cube.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
June 14, 2016
September 17, 2019
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